Government responds to children’s workforce strategy consultation

New roles at graduate level for early years staff will be developed by the government, children’s minister Beverley Hughes confirmed today.

The pledge is in the government’s response to consultation on the children’s workforce strategy, out today.

The document gives more detail on ways of integrating qualifications for the children’s workforce, to make moving across the sector easier in future.

The government also intends to support the development of local workforce strategies. The Department for Education and Skills and others will work “to agree a simplified, streamlined set of arrangements for strategies covering workforce planning and workforce development across health, social care and children’s services,” says the new document. A study of workforce strategy in one region will help inform this.

Guidance on the new £250 million transformation training fund is to be published by the government next month. The fund aims to attract graduates into early years work and provide more training for existing staff, including those working with disabled children.

The children’s workforce strategy itself was published in April last year.